In lieu of a traditional opening, on Sunday January 10th at 3PM, Jessica Ann Peavy and T. I. Williams (educator and chef) will be conducting an outdoor food demonstration of a classic Caribbean dish. This performance will allow the public to explore their own sexuality through the power of super foods and sustainable healing.

For her exhibition at Momenta, Peavy will present She Knows Something You Don’t Know, a single channel video exploring the characterization of the High Priestess from the Tarot, representing wisdom, intuition, secrecy, and sexuality in it’s purest form. This work explores a contemporary performance and ritual practice of the High Priestess and her mysterious understanding of the earth and the subconscious. It investigates the relationship between the magical versus the spiritual and how western religion has influenced African folk traditions and the connections between the sacred, the secular, gendered/sexual expression, and performance. In her video work, Peavy investigates the language, gestures, and iconography that define historical and contemporary African-American culture employing layered imagery, multiple screens/projections, dialogues, and audio tracks at once to address personal contradictions on how one views the African American female identity.

Jessica Ann Peavy received an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2006 and a BFA from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, in 2004. She received a NYSCA individual artist grant and new media grant and a Jerome Foundation Travel grant in 2009, Harvestworks Artist-In-Residence program in 2008, and Smack Mellon Artist-In-Residence and fellowship in 2007. She has exhibited with institutions such as the Brooklyn Arts Council, Smack Mellon Gallery, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston.